Elderly or ill patients admitted to the hospital are often prescribed medications to help alleviate pain, expedite recovery, stabilize conditions, and otherwise bring comfort to the patient during his or her stay. Conventionally, patients admitted into hospitals are not allowed to self-administer medications, including over-the-counter painkillers, as each dose of medication must be approved by the patient's physician prior to administration.
As a result, many patients are often left waiting for approval before they are allowed to take their medications in a timely fashion. Additionally, it is customary for a nurse to bring the prescribed or requested medications to the patient after approval at the appropriate time windows. This often takes a good deal of time, and as such, pain control in hospitals is regarded as slow at best.
Many patients come to the conclusion that they could have simply brought medication from home, such as Tylenol™ or Ibuprofen, and alleviated their pain much faster than through the proper channels at the hospital. Additionally, it is cheaper to bring medication from home. Unfortunately, doctors and hospital staff frown upon this, and attempt to prohibit the behavior, as each medication ingested by the patient must be tracked and monitored. If medications are not carefully tracked, unknown medications can cause serious interactions with new medications. New medications may need to be adjusted for patient-specific factors.
Thus, there is a need for a system for the self-administration of medications to a patient in a hospital bed that allows the patient to independently administer prescription and over-the-counter medication at the correct times and doses without nurse intervention. Such a system preferably tracks when medication is dispensed, and employs a camera (and/or other identity authentication technology) to verify the medication is dispensed to the correct patient, and that the patient consumes the medication when dispensed. Such a system is also preferably configured to function in tandem with existing digital health technologies such as Proteus™ by Proteus Digital Health™ to further authenticate administration of the medication. This system is preferably capable of saving hospitals and other health centers money by lessening nursing interruptions and decreasing errors, which can be better spent on patient care.
A reference is made in the prior art to a similar apparatus. International Publication Number WO 2013/033033 A1, filed on Aug. 27, 2012 by Kraft et al. is for a Portable Drug Dispenser. Kraft et al. teaches a portable device configured to dispense personal medication that is equipped with biometric authentication and network interactivity. However, the device taught by Kraft et al. is designed for portable use rather than use in a hospital by patients for convenience and to expedite pain relief as is the intent of the present invention.